Question

i have this query

SELECT  
   CASE WHEN EXISTS (SELECT PARM_VALUE 
                       FROM BO_PARM  
                      WHERE (ENTE_CD = '7316') 
                        AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI')  
        THEN p2.PARM_VALUE 
        ELSE p1.PARM_VALUE 
    END as RIGHE 
  FROM
       (SELECT PARM_VALUE 
          FROM BO_PARM  
         WHERE (ENTE_CD = '0000' OR ENTE_CD = 'XXXX') 
           AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI') p1,
       (SELECT PARM_VALUE 
          FROM BO_PARM  
         WHERE (ENTE_CD = '7316') 
           AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI') p2

Basically i want to return the Value of the second query when the second query hase at least one row otherwise return the result of the first query. Right now these are the return values:

SELECT PARM_VALUE 
  FROM BO_PARM  
  WHERE (ENTE_CD = '7316') 
    AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI' //No retrun

SELECT PARM_VALUE 
  FROM BO_PARM  
 WHERE (ENTE_CD = '0000' OR ENTE_CD = 'XXXX') 
  AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI' //returns 10

SELECT  
    CASE WHEN EXISTS (SELECT PARM_VALUE 
                        FROM BO_PARM  
                       WHERE (ENTE_CD = '7316') 
                         AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI')  
         THEN p2.PARM_VALUE 
         ELSE p1.PARM_VALUE 
     END as RIGHE 
  FROM
       (SELECT PARM_VALUE 
          FROM BO_PARM  
         WHERE (ENTE_CD = '0000' OR ENTE_CD = 'XXXX') 
           AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI') p1,
       (SELECT PARM_VALUE 
          FROM BO_PARM  
         WHERE (ENTE_CD = '7316') 
           AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI') p2  //no return, i was expecting 10

what am i doing wrong in the CASE statement?

Answer 1

Your existing query has an implied cartesian join between the two sub-queries – this means that where one query returns n rows and the other returns m rows, you will see a total of m * n rows returned – ie. every combination of rows from the first set with rows from the second set.

So if you have 0 rows being returned in either set, you will see 0 rows being returned in total.

Assuming neither query should return more than one row, then probably the simplest version of the amended query might be as follows:

SELECT coalesce(
       (SELECT PARM_VALUE FROM BO_PARM  WHERE (ENTE_CD = '7316') AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI'),
       (SELECT PARM_VALUE FROM BO_PARM  WHERE (ENTE_CD = '0000' OR ENTE_CD = 'XXXX') AND PARM_CD = 'PAGINAZIONE_PROMOZIONI')
                )